The News Enterprise reports from Kentucky. "Like much of the country, this area does not appear to be exempt from a housing sales slump. Building permits issued in Radcliff and Elizabethtown in 2007 for new houses dwindled from preceding years. Broker John E. Wright Sr. warns developers, especially small contractors, not to get too overzealous. 'I think some people are getting overextended,' he said. 'The people who jumped in and don’t have a background are going to get hurt.'"

"Property manager Jayme Burden said some houses formerly for sale in the area now are being rented, a trend the National Association of Realtors identified in a report last month."

"The boom in what he called 'cell-phone contractors' helped speed up the pace for new construction and, if the lull continues in the housing market, could lead some of them to look for other work. 'At some point the (residential) growth kind of surpasses the demand,' he said, 'and that’s where we are right now.'"

The Courier Journal from Kentucky. "The partners in the massive RiverPark Place condominium and marina development have done little work since November and have greatly reduced the scope of the project's planned first phase. It may take a decade or more, but 'the project will get built as designed, absolutely,' said Steve Poe, the lead partner in the venture."

"'We've been fighting the sub-prime mortgage crisis,' Poe said, adding that with an uncertain housing market 'we and our lenders don't have an appetite for building a lot of 'spec' buildings.'"

"Poe said the crisis in the national lending industry affected River Park Place. 'Everyone, including us, has a higher level of uncertainty' about building condo towers than 'we did 12 months ago,' Poe said."

The Columbus Dispatch from Ohio. "Ohio's county auditors take a snapshot of home values every three years to determine the property taxes you pay. Delaware County Auditor Todd Hanks said his staff has only begun reviewing recent sale prices, but a first look indicates that the average property-value increase 'could be 1 percent, it could be nothing,' he said."

"In one of the fastest-growing counties in the country? The place where pricey houses were going up so fast it seemed to exist in a perpetual cloud of construction dust?"

"Hanks said his estimate might be off, but the increase is sure to be modest. After an average 11.25 percent increase in 2002 and a 16.75 percent uptick in 2005, 'We're not seeing big changes,' Hanks said."

"Madison County Auditor Jim Williamson said values in 2005 rose 15 percent, 'but that's quite some time ago, and I'm not sure it's really indicative of what's going on in the real-estate market today.'"

The Middletown Journal from Ohio. "Homeowners in 2007 saw property values deflate faster than a New Year's Eve party balloon. Sheriff's sales of home foreclosures in Butler County surged from 1,312 in 2006 to 1,672 properties last year, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Monte Mayer."

"Interest rates are hovering at 6 to 6.5 percent. That's compared to the 7 percent interest rates available before the real estate bubble burst, said Coyt Rains, outgoing president of the Hamilton-Fairfield-Oxford Board of Realtors."

"So what's keeping buyers from entering the market? 'With all the bad news about the market today, people are afraid. Positive news about the housing industry would help,' Rains said."

"It's already a buyer's market, but it could get even better for those looking to own a home. There are many incentives for those looking to own a home, including low interest rates and a plentiful home inventory, said Reba Owens, president of the Middletown Board of Realtors."

"'You are going to get more house for your money today,' she said." "The selection can partly be attributed to Butler County's high rate of foreclosures, which have hit Hamilton and Middletown hard."

"But what could happen if things don't start turning around? 'The housing market is one of the biggest engines that drives the economy. It affects everything. If this continues, the country would be in a deep recession,' said Rains."

"'I don't think the government can allow that to happen. It would have to pump some money into the economy to jump-start things,' he said."

The Toledo Blade from Ohio. "Very little subprime mortgage lending is taking place in the Toledo area anymore, but loans made in the last several years led to a glut of foreclosed homes and a struggling real estate market, two local real-estate experts said."

"Al Green, president of the Toledo Board of Realtors, said that with nearly 7,000 more homes on the market than a year ago, sellers should expect houses to sit 180 to 300 days. 'We're pushing a year to sell a house.'"

"Sellers who do not adjust their prices to the middle or low end of the market will have an even harder time selling, he added."

"As for buyers, those hoping to purchase without providing a down payment or by using a loan with a low 'teaser' interest rate are out of luck, said David Seeger, CEO of Great Lakes Credit Union. 'Subprime loans have dried up,' he said. If someone cannot qualify for a conventional loan, "there's really not a lot of avenues left for us to place them into a … loan.'"

"Mr. Green pointed out that real estate crises are cyclical and housing downturns occurred in the area in the mid 1970s, in 1980-81, and in 1989. 'I was frankly expecting a slowdown a few years ago,' he said."

The Canton Repository from Ohio. "Angela Hammond no longer believes her Canton home was worth the $75,000 sale price. The doorbell should have been the first hint. It never worked. Evergreen Homes, which sold her the home, said it was easy enough for her to fix."

"Then, water began to leak in the basement. And she found water dripping from the ceiling in her children’s bedroom and warping the ceiling in her master bedroom, even though the roof was supposed to be new."

"'Wouldn’t you think they would complete the whole house and not leave certain things undone?' asked Hammond, a first-time homebuyer. 'They said it was inspected.'"

"Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Richard Hoenigman explained how the scheme worked: Evergreen bought the Summit County properties at foreclosure, made cosmetic upgrades to the homes, obtained inflated appraisals, and then sold them at the overly inflated value."

"'They would take overinflated appraisal and use it to secure a legitimate loan for the inflated amount,' Hoenigman said. 'Since most lenders only lend 80 percent of the value, Evergreen would take the second mortgage to make up the difference so that the unsuspecting homeowner would be able to buy the house with no money down.'"

"'They all were in over their heads to begin with,' Hoenigman said. 'A lot of them just barely, if at all, qualified for the initial loan. After two years, most of these loans were adjustible-rate mortgages, and the mortgage payments would go up.'"

"More than 40 percent of the properties Evergreen sold in Summit County went to foreclosure, he said. About 47 percent of the roughly 100 properties Evergreen sold between 2005 and 2007 in Stark County have gone to foreclosure, a Repository analysis of county auditor and court records show."

The IndyStar from Indiana. "Flaherty & Collins has taken over a stalled condo project on Morse Reservoir and plans to begin closing on homes this month. When the property was purchased in 2005, John Kretchmar, a Chicago-based developer, expected to have the first three buildings done by 2010 with three more to come but said the timeline was scaled back due to the slow housing market."

"Despite the slow market, Kretchmar said, demand is still there for condos. 'Noblesville is one of the fastest growing cities in Hamilton County and the Indianapolis area,' he said. 'Of course, the location on the reservoir is very attractive.'"

The Chicago Tribune from Illinois. "Kimball Hill Inc., a major Chicago-area builder with operations in eight states, said Friday that it was forced to delay its 2007 financial statement as its debt was downgraded by Standard & Poor's."

"Along with many other builders, Rolling Meadows-based Kimball Hill has seen its sales wither in the face of the worst housing recession in decades. Sales for some builders have fallen by 40 percent or more over the last two years. Housing consultant Steve Hovany said one major builder, Orleans Homes, recently sold land it had acquired in this area and at least one national builder is thinking of abandoning the Chicago market."

"'Just about all the major builders are trying to conserve cash, instituting layoffs or reducing the size of their offices,' said Hovany. He said builders 'are struggling with overhead costs that are too high and projects that no longer are profitable.'"

"S&P said 'Kimball Hill will have no access to additional borrowings' under its senior credit facility, which had just over $100 million available at the end of June."

The Sun Times from Illinois. "Countrywide Financial Corp. will cut 127 jobs at its Rolling Meadows office starting Jan. 18."

"Countrywide is the focus of an investigation by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Madigan’s office subpoened documents from the company last fall. It is probing how homeowners were approved for mortgages far beyond their means."

The Leelanau News from Michigan. "The just-concluded year will go down as one in which some cracks became visible in the plans of developers to step up the creation of housing stocks in Leelanau County. Three of the largest developments ever proposed for Leelanau County are taking a more cautious approach, showing signs of financial stress — or both."

"The obvious example can be found at the BayView development in the Village of Suttons Bay, which just a couple years ago touted plans to double the size of the village when fully built. But sales of waterfront condominiums never did take off, and stagnated amid a downturned housing industry and publicity of a trail of unpaid construction subcontractors and claims of shoddy workmanship."

"Consultant Chuck Kalchik and Timber Shores primary owner Fred Gordon, a Royal Oak attorney who has created housing developments from California to Florida, are convinced Timber Shores will be embraced by a growing number of new retirees — eventually."

"'You've just got to look at it in the long-term. It's a 10-year build-out. We're hitting the baby boomer market, and that is the group that is starting to retire,' he said."

"Timber Shores will seek to provide housing in a wide range of prices, from $175,000 to over $1 million."

"One of the problems that beset BayView condominium sales may have been their prices, said Shelly Brunette, a real estate agent in Suttons Bay. She said...there is a two-year supply of units in the $250,000 to $550,000 range. BayView units were selling for just above that mark, in the $700,000 range."

"And she added that developments such as BayView unveiled their plans several years ago, long before the market took a downturn. 'Those developments that are on the bubble didn't start last year — they started years ago before that market went haywire,' said Brunette."

"County planner Trudy Galla said Leelanau County had plenty of empty lots available long before developers sought permission from local units of government to create large-scale developments. She pointed to a Leelanau County Planning Department study in the 1990s."

"'What we found was that every (township) had vacant lots. What we were able to show was there were a lot of vacant lots out there, and so why do we need subdivisions?' she asked. 'No one wants to have another development out there sitting vacant. If the market studies aren't there to support it, why are they proposing 150 to 200 more units?'"

The Lansing State Journal from Michigan. "More than 1,700 Ingham County homes were sold in sheriff's auctions in 2007, more than triple the number of homes lost through foreclosure in 2000."

"Approximately 95 percent of homes at that stage of foreclosure are eventually lost by the homeowner, while owners of the remaining 5 percent save their homes in the following six-month redemption period."

"In 2007, the county saw 1,757 homes reach a sheriff's sale, up 33.9 percent from 1,312 homes in 2006 and up 362.4 percent from 380 homes in 2000.'

The Grand Haven Tribune from Michigan. "The county's Register of Deeds documented 850 foreclosures last year, compared with 540 in 2006 and 333 in 2005 — while only a total of 423 foreclosures occurred in Ottawa County during a five-year span from 1996 to 2000."

"Relative to some counties on the east side of the state, Ottawa County's foreclosure numbers aren't bad. Default Research found foreclosures increased in 2007 from the previous year by 108 percent in the Detroit area. Last month alone, 2,069 foreclosures took place in Wayne County."

"The situation in Ottawa County and the rest of the state doesn't seem to be getting better. In the first six months of 2007, the county had 388 foreclosures. It had 462 in the second half of the year."

"'This bubble started to pop up a couple of years ago, and each year since then we've thought it's got to bottom out,' said Ottawa County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Cotton, who posts foreclosure notices for the county. 'And it will. But it's gone on a lot longer than any of us out in the real world would have thought.'"

The Ann Arbor News from Michigan. "A record number of homes in Washtenaw and Livingston counties were foreclosed upon in 2007, statistics show. Combined, 2,180 homes were sold at sheriff's auction in the two counties last year, a 90 percent jump from 2006, according to the counties' respective Register of Deeds offices, and quintuple the number of auctions just five years ago."

"'When you look at a bell curve, we have not yet reached the top,' said Washtenaw County Treasurer Catherine McClary, who estimates that in Washtenaw alone, 2,200 homes entered some state of foreclosure in 2007. 'We will probably see that in late 2008 or 2009. This is still the beginning.'"

"The rise in foreclosures is blamed largely on this year's swell in adjustable rate mortgage resets. Falling home prices have made it hard for homeowners to sell or refinance into fixed-rate mortgages."

"'When it first started, the first (foreclosed homes) were east of US-23 and now it appears that it's an equal number east and west of 23,' said Washtenaw County Special Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Moore, director of the civil division, who auctions foreclosed homes in downtown Ann Arbor. 'Now, it's the whole county.'"

"Moore said most of the foreclosed homes he auctions range in price between $200,000 and $700,000. He estimated that more than 50 percent of people vacate their house before the end of the redemption period following a sheriff's sale here, which can be between six and 12 months."

"The rest are evicted by the mortgage company or bank with the help of sheriff's deputies."

"Ralph Newkirk runs the foreclosure division for Real Estate One. Newkirk's office deals exclusively with banks selling foreclosed properties. His listings doubled in 2006 across southeast Michigan."

"'Sometimes I go into these vacant homes and I see all these letters from the bank that have never been opened. They figure if they don't look at it, it doesn't exist,' Newkirk said. 'These letters are the banks pleading with people to please call me and maybe we can work something out.'"

"Barry Kenyon is a local agent who sells foreclosed homes. Kenyon said in Washtenaw County, most of the foreclosed homes he's dealt with are in Ypsilanti Township, typically in a subdivision. Foreclosed homes are impacting the price of neighboring houses in some areas because there are simply too many for appraisers to ignore."

"One bright sign is that mortgage lenders and banks are more aggressively trying to negotiate with homeowners to prevent foreclosure now. Moore said he has more than 100 homes on 'adjournment' which means the bank has asked the county to hold off on the sheriff's auction while it tries to resolve the matter with the homeowner."